Pop Buzz UK

The BAFTA Television Awards took place tonight at the London Palladium, and the ceremony was full of surprises, as a series of unexpected winners took home the trophies.

The ceremony is an annual back slapping for the cream of British television, with actors, directors and programmes being awarded for the last twelve months.

The big winners were the cast and crew of Gavin and Stacey, a little sitcom which has built a cult following on BBC Three over the past two years.

The show, currently on its second series, won programme of the year, while its star, and co-writer James Corden, who is rumoured to be dating songstress Lily Allen, won the award for best comedy performance.

The series beat The Apprentice, Strictly Come Dancing and Britain’s Got Talent to the title, while Corden beat such illustrious names as Stephen Merchant (Extras) and David Mitchell (Peep Show).

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The Brit Awards took place tonight in Earls Court, London, and here we have all of the latest news, gossip, winners and losers.

The annual event was presented by the Osbourne clan, with Sharon and Kelly taking most of the stage time. Unfortunately, Sharon spent the whole evening looking and acting drunk, while Ozzy sat in the background shaking.

There was a particularly memorable moment when Vic Reeves came on to the stage to present the award for Best British Album. He was pissed as a fart, and so he and Sharon fought over who was going to announce the winner. That was about the only controversy on a night celebrating a year of great British music.

Most of the awards went the way I had expected, or at least secretly hoped for. The big winners of the night ended up being Take That, Arctic Monkeys, and Foo Fighters, who all walked away with two awards each.

Leona Lewis ended up as the biggest loser, as even though she managed to win The X Factor in 2006, she managed to lose in all four of the categories she was nominated in.

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Incredible as it may seem, you read it right, Pop Buzz UK has been nominated in two categories in the upcoming Blogger’s Choice Awards! This little slice of pop culture heaven, which I just happen to write has been put up for both the ‘Best Pop Culture Blog’ and the ‘Best Entertainment Blog’. The awards are sponsored by PayPerPost and will run until June 2nd when the winners will be announced at PostieCon in Orlando, Florida.
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Wednesday night saw the Brit awards 2007 take place at Earl’s court arena in London. The annual awards ceremony for the British music scene was shown on ITV, completely live for the first time in almost 20 years. That was the shambolic performance by topless pin-up Samantha Fox and Mick Fleetwood, when almost everything went wrong, and these 2 amateur presenters couldn’t deal with it. No such problems this year, when man of the moment Russell Brand handled everything sublimely, and was funny to boot!

The big winners this year were the Arctic Monkeys, with no surprises that they won both Best British Group, and Best British Album for ‘Whatever people say I am, that’s what I’m not’. They shared the top billing and award take home with The Killers, who won both International Group and International Album for ‘Sam’s Town’.

The rest of the awards were pretty evenly shared out, with highlights being The Fratellis winning ‘Best Breakthrough’, and ‘Best Live Act going to the always superb and thoroughly deserved Muse. The gorgeous and very talented Amy Winehouse beat off tough competition from Lily Allen and Corinne Bailey Rae for ‘Best Female Solo Artist’. James Morrison and Take That rounded out the British winners on the night with ‘Best Solo Male Artist’ and ‘Best British Single’ respectively. The latter was a weird tale of highs and lows, with the morning of the Brits finding former bandmate Robbie Williams splashed all over the papers for entering rehab. How the fortunes turn! (more…)

The first of my review and round ups of last year’s best of British Pop Culture is focussed on television. So what were we watching and enjoying last year here in Britain, and what were the turkeys that sank without trace, hardly registering on the viewing scale?

We start with the best, with my highlights of the year… (more…)

The Brits were the big winners at the International Emmy Awards last night in New York. Winning more awards than any other country, Britain triumphed in six categories including Best Young People’s programme and Best Drama. The annual awards honour TV programmes produced from outside of the US and were this year held at the Hilton Hotel in New York.

Host Graham Norton did a brilliant job; cracking jokes about Madonna, Donald Rumsfeld and newly married cultists TomKat, all without the malfunctioning autocue. Guest presenters doled out prizes to the winners including the brilliant David Walliams and Matt Lucas for Little Britain, which won Best Comedy. Sexy Beast star Ray Winstone was named best actor for his role in Vincent, while the very sweary Gordon Ramsay picked up the Non-scripted entertainment prize for his show Kitchen Nightmares. Other British winners were Lesbian drama Sugar Rush, Time travelling cop show Life On Mars, and BBC documentary Hiroshima. (more…)

As I speculated a couple of weeks ago on Pop Buzz UK, Michael Jackson made his first appearance in Britain for over 10 years last night at the World Music Awards. Not only did he pick up a diamond award, reserved for artists who have sold over 100 million records, he also performed to the expectant crowd. A crowd expecting MJ to perform Thriller, his best known and groundbreaking hit from 1983 after it was widely reported by the world’s media. In fact what they got, was Michael joining in with a group of children on a few lines of “We Are The World”. It seems he couldn’t even manage to sing through a whole song.

This was his first appearance on stage since he was cleared on child abuse charges and according to reports he had to be talked into going on stage by a fellow performer. Jackson devotees will surely be disappointed at this most recent bizarre behaviour of the man once dubbed “The King Of Pop”. After recent photos of him looking more like a woman, now it seems “The Queen Of Pap” seems more fitting. (more…)

Michael Jackson, Oh he’s such a lovable type isn’t he, hanging children out of windows and whatever else he may or may not do. That’s why I’m so chuffed to hear he’s to receive an honour at the annual World Music Awards in two weeks time. So is it for best album, single, video? Don’t think so. Wasting all of his millions trying to prolong his youth in to his late 40s? Maybe. But I think, I think, it’s for being Michael Jackson. I can’t be sure but that’s about the only reason I can see for giving this guy (whose career is long behind him) an award.

Being the practical, hands on guy I am, I thought I’d better find out the truth…

Ohhhhhhhhhh, he’s getting the Diamond award, which is given to artists who sell more than 100 Million records during their career. That explains it then. I’m guessing that whatever the figure is at the moment, it won’t be getting too much higher from now on. (more…)

Last night, the annual back slapping celeb filled, drink fuelled MTV Europe Music Awards rolled into the Danish capital Copenhagen. This year’s show was seen live in 17 countries across the globe and was again dominated by American artists.

Justin Timberlake was the host for the show, and an inspired choice on an evening where he himself came out top. The ever-cool Mr Trousersnake was the big winner, collecting two awards to add to the many already gathering dust in his mansion. He picked up Best Male and Pop Act, which I don’t think anyone could argue with. One man who did his best though was Kanye West, who despite being named Best Hip Hop act earlier in the evening, lost out to the lesser known Justice and Simian in the Best Video category for their We are your friends (Watch it below). When they were collecting their well deserved recognition, Kanye crashed the stage and in a tirade of expletives, announced he should have won the prize for his video Touch the sky because “it cost a million dollars, Pamela Anderson was in it, and I was jumping canyons”…And your point?
He continued to rant that “If I don’t win, the award show loses credibility” Ah diddums, you didn’t win, get over it. (more…)

Jonathan Ross (pictured above holding his OBE) raised a huge laugh at the Q Magazine Awards on Monday night by branding Paul McCartney’s estranged wife “a f**king liar”.

Popular British TV star Ross was presenting the music magazine awards ceremony at the Grosvenor House hotel in London when he uttered the tirade. It was his opening line to a celebrity filled star-studded audience, which included big names such as the rock band U2, Oasis songwriter Noel Gallagher, The Arctic Monkeys, Boy George and Soul music legend Smokey Robinson. (more…)